ONLINE classified site Carmudi Philippines is slated to invest $15 million in the next three to five years in its local operations, as it aims to expand its portfolio of vehicle offerings.
Stefan Haubold, global cofounder and managing director of the online vehicle classifieds platform, said the amount will be utilized to broaden its market presence in the Philippines and reach more dealerships and potential sellers across the country.
“What we essentially want to do is aggregate the market. We want buyers to see on the site whatever they would see in dealerships across the country,” Haubold said.
Currently, the listings of vehicles on Carmudi Philippines, which numbers about 20,000 at any given time, are mostly cars and motorcycles. The classifieds site charge dealerships for every slot taken up for a particular listing. Catering to the demand of Filipino consumers, Japanese and Korean brands dominate the number of listings but plans are in place to sign on more “midlevel and luxury” American and European brands to diversify the offerings of the marketplace.
The majority of the client base of Carmudi are car and vehicle dealerships of various car brands nationwide that signed on to the classifieds platform to seek another avenue of reaching customers.
An untapped market, however, are private sellers who have yet to come online and use the platform to sell motorcycles and cars.
Private sellers currently take up at most 10 percent of the listings posted on the online vehicle marketplace, but Lohani hopes to see this share improve, especially with quality and verification processes in place to weed out fake listings.
The classifieds site enjoys an average of 700,000 views per month, estimates Lohani, with 50 percent considered unique views.